To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed the entire object, paste this HTML in websiteTo link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed this page, paste this HTML in website

lA ^^^"'^
¦<v-i
THE NEGRO IN EARLY OHIO*
BY CHARLES JAY WILSON
"If men were angels," wrote John Jay in the fifth of the Federalist papers, "no government would be necessary." Few people of today who live the richer intellectual life which follows naturally upon an en¬ deavor to sound out modern social phenomena and strike something deeper than the superficial aspects will find much in this principle with which to quarrel. In fact, a majority more likely would contend that the New York barrister should have carried his statement a little far¬ ther to say, "If men were angels, there would be no his¬ tory." After aU, history is the story of the relative strengths and weaknesses of mankind, and if there were no weaknesses to throw the strengths into greater relief, there would be no story worth the telling. Quite con¬ sistently, then, the historical field affords an abundance of proof in support of the truism that when the lamb of idealism and the lion of practicality lie down together, very frequently it is the lion alone which arises again. No better example of the modification of a nebulous theory in the light of the cold facts presented by practical considerations can be found than the change in the atti¬ tude of the people of Ohio toward the negro between
* Awarded the annual prize offered by the Ohio Society of Colonial Wars for the best essay in early Western history and offered as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in the University of Cincinnati, June, 1939, History Department.
(717)